EXPECT EVEN
HIGHER PRICES
AT THE PUMP

As if we don’t already pay enough for gas in California, come this summer we may be taxed on it even more by the state.

The tax Californians pay for each gallon of gas they buy — called the excise tax — is expected to increase 3.5 cents per gallon in July to 39.5 cents per gallon.

The state Board of Equalization — charged with setting the rate since 2010 — will meet Tuesday in Culver City to consider about a 10 percent increase because previous tax collections fell short of budgeted amounts. The excise tax isn’t the only one we pay at the pump. The state also charges 2.25 percent in sales tax, and the federal government charges 18.4 cents per gallon in excise tax.

So how much more will you pay? If you’re like most Americans, you drive an average of 15,000 miles per year. And if you figure you get 20 miles per gallon, that means you’d buy 750 gallons of gasoline. Under the current system, with the average gallon of gas in California costing $4.217, over the year you would buy $3,162 in gas, including $408 in federal and state excise taxes, and about $70 in state sales tax.

That doesn’t include local taxes, like the half-cent San Diego charges. If the California Board of Equalization approves the rate increase, the extra tax would kick in an additional $26.25 over the year.

California’s gas prices are routinely among the highest in the nation, and so is its gas tax.

In a ranking of states released last month, the American Petroleum Institute showed California trailing only New York in combined excise, state and local taxes. Should California’s 3.5 cent increase go through, however, the Golden State would be the most expensive.

The increase would be the second state tax hike Californians would see this year after the passage of Proposition 30, which raised the sales tax a quarter percent. The jump would affect only those who buy regular gasoline.

Those who buy diesel will see a 1.94 percent increase in their sales tax in July, but the excise tax rate — 10 cents — is not expected to increase, a Board of Equalization memorandum says.

The 3.5 cent increase would be the largest since the state Legislature switched the gas-taxation system in 2010, when it lowered the sales tax to 2.25 percent from 8.25 percent. At the same time, it roughly doubled the excise tax to 35.3 cents per gallon.

Still, California’s projections on gas-tax revenue fell short by $157 million in fiscal 2011, based on what the state would have gotten under the previous sales-tax model, the finance department reports. The state will try to recoup that money through the rate increase should it be approved Tuesday.

However, gasoline sales have been dropping since the Great Recession, as cars have become more efficient — the Toyota Prius is the best-selling car in San Diego County — and prices per gallon have increased.

Taxable gallons of gas sold statewide peaked at 15.9 billion in fiscal 2005, but in fiscal 2011, the latest full year available, it was down to 14.6 billion, the Board of Equalization reports. That’s not good for an excise tax, which is a tax based on the sale of an actual product, not its price.